Stuarts and Romanovs: The Rise and Fall of a Special Relationship 9781474467865

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STUART S AND ROMANOVS

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Peter I and William III, Medal struck for ‘friendly interview’ at Utrecht, 1697, A Summary of Mr Rapin de Thoyras’s History of England, 1751, University of Aberdeen [A Summary, p. 38, medal no. 4]. Front: The King’s bust crowned with laurel, and this legend round it: GULIELMUS III, DEI GRATIA, MAGNAE BRITANNIAE, FRANCIAE, ET HIBERNIAE REX, FIDEI DEFENSOR, PIUS, AUGUSTUS; William III, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, defender of the faith, pious, august. Reverse: The King receiving the Czar at the gate of his palace, with these words in the rim: SIC OLIM HEROES; Thus acted the ancient heroes. The city of Utrecht is seen in the offings. In the exergue is the following inscription: PETRI ALEXIEWICZ CZAR MAGNIQUE GULIELMI REGIS AMICITIA TRAJECTI AD RHENUM, XI SEPTEMBRIS, MDCXCVII; The friendly interview between the Czar Peter Alexiewicz and King William the Great, at Utrecht, 11 September 1697.

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STUARTS AND ROMANOVS The Rise and Fall of a Special Relationship

Paul Dukes Graeme P. Herd Jarmo Kotilaine

DUNDEE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Dundee University Press University of Dundee Dundee DD1 4HN http://www.dup.dundee.ac.uk/ Copyright © Paul Dukes, Graeme P. Herd, Jarmo Kotilaine 2009 ISBN: 978 1 84586 055 4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library

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Typeset by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd. Printed and bound in Britain by Bell and Bain Ltd, Glasgow

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Contents List of illustrations Preface List of Abbreviations Maps 1 Introduction: Sixteenth-century Legacy Tudors and Riurikovichi; Commerce; Diplomacy; War; Stuarts and Romanovs; First Meeting

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2 New Beginnings, 1603–1625 War – The Time of Troubles; The Accession of the Stuarts; The Accession of the Romanovs; Diplomacy; Commerce

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3 From Decline to Disruption, 1625–1649 A Gap in Diplomacy; Commerce; Peripheries of the Thirty Years’ War; The Peace of Westphalia

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4 Crisis, Interregnum and Restoration, 1649–1663 Crisis; Interregnum; Commerce; Restoration

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5 The Struggle for Revival, 1663–1676 New Diplomacy; Gordon and Charles II; More New Diplomacy; Commerce

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6 Towards Termination, 1676–1688 Late Diplomacy; Gordon and James II; More Late Diplomacy; Commerce

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7 Endgame, 1688–1698 The Birth of Jacobitism in Russia; Peter I’s Assumption of Power; Jacobitism and Peter I; Commerce – New Moves

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8 Conclusion: Seventeenth-century Legacy ‘The Great Embassy’, 1697–1698; War and Diplomacy; Commerce; Stuarts and Romanovs; Last Meeting

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Bibliography Index

223 247

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Illustrations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

James VI and I. Tsar Mikhail. Charles I. Tsar Aleksei. Charles II. Tsar Fedor. James VII and II. The Regent Sophia. Fabian Smith. Grigorii Mikulin. Earl of Carlisle. Petr Prozorovskii. Patrick Gordon. Petr Potemkin. Sir John Hebdon. Vasilii Golitsyn. London before the fire. Moscow, 1643. Arkhangel’sk, 1643 Vologda, 1711. Narva.

Maps 1 2

Northern Europe (Cartography by Tracey Dixon, DUP) Muscovy (Cartography by Tracey Dixon, DUP)

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Illustrations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

James VI and I. Tsar Mikhail. Charles I. Tsar Aleksei. Charles II. Tsar Fedor. James VII and II. The Regent Sophia. Fabian Smith. Grigorii Mikulin. Earl of Carlisle. Petr Prozorovskii. Patrick Gordon. Petr Potemkin. Sir John Hebdon. Vasilii Golitsyn. London before the fire. Moscow, 1643. Arkhangel’sk, 1643 Vologda, 1711. Narva.

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Northern Europe (Cartography by Tracey Dixon, DUP) Muscovy (Cartography by Tracey Dixon, DUP)

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Preface The Stuarts and the Romanovs are two of the most famous dynasties in history. There have been many books about both. Yet this is the first to discuss a full range of contacts between them. While it aims not to repeat what has already been said, it does throw some fresh light on both dynasties and encourages comparisons, especially concerning their attempts to establish variants of absolutist government within the framework of international relations. Most of the seventeenth century was dominated by the Stuarts in Britain and the Romanovs in Russia. Through their actions and policies, they came to define much of what happened in and between the two countries. However, the story is about much more than the two dynasties, not least because the initial contact between both England and Scotland on the one hand and Russia on the other took place during the reigns of their predecessors, the Tudors and Riurikovichi, but also because the Stuart dynasty in the paternalist, would-be absolutist male line was removed from the throne at a time when the tsar who came to be known as Peter the Great embarked on the expansion of the Russian empire. Moreover, Stuart–Romanov contacts marked the genesis of regular interaction between Muscovite Russia and Britain, never before systematically analysed. This interaction is not only of interest in its own right, but also of critical importance for the development of the two countries as well as for Europe and the wider world. Much of the previous writing on the Anglo-Russian, that is to say Brito-Russian, relationship is misinformed and fails to appreciate the full complexity and significance of the encounter between the two geographical extremes of early modern Europe. In fact, the relationship went through a number of different phases which reflected the evolution of the two countries and their responses to the increasingly rapid pace of change in Europe, which was in the throes of major commercial, diplomatic and military transformations, even revolutions. In our book, we concentrate on three important dimensions of the contacts between the two countries, namely commerce, diplomacy and war. These three areas are related, but in many ways different. They also varied a great deal over time. While the first encounter was above all diplomatic in nature, it was concerned to a considerable extent with trade, and the relationship was driven forward by merchants organised in the Muscovy Company. In its turn, the

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modus operandi of the company continued to be circumscribed by the diplomatic objectives of the Stuarts in the wake of the Tudors. If their Dutch rivals were aggressively commercial in their approach to the Russian market, the merchants of the Muscovy Company in concert with their royal patrons insisted on upholding privileges that became increasingly outdated and difficult to justify in view of the operations of the Dutch and other rivals. Meanwhile, Russia under the Romanovs was a power recovering from a profound Time of Troubles, craving recognition and seeking strategic advantage. Reluctant to make binding commitments, the Stuarts nevertheless gave some support to the activities of mostly Scottish soldiers playing a key role in the modernisation and growth of the Russian army. As the diplomatic relationship reached a crisis with the onset of Civil War in England, Scotland and Ireland, the role of soldiers and merchants was critical in ensuring continued interaction between the two countries, and ultimately decisive in reviving Anglo-Russian relations on a more realistic and sustainable basis. Many of the English and Scottish residents in Russia came to understand the country and its needs in a manner that visiting British diplomats quite simply failed to appreciate. Some of these individuals eventually became drivers of diplomacy as well. Moreover, the takeover and transformation of the Muscovy Company by people more focused on profits than privileges created the basis for exploiting commercial opportunities in a way that initially emulated and ultimately outshone the Dutch. By this time, however, the absolutist pretensions of the Stuarts had been crushed. All these developments have to be considered in the context of seventeenthcentury wars. Although both Stuarts and Romanovs had a peripheral relationship to the Thirty Years’ War that dominated most of the first half of the century, they were nevertheless subject to its influence, especially in the panEuropean crisis that immediately followed it. Subsequently, while the Stuarts were at war in the West, especially with the Dutch Republic, the Romanovs were in conflict with their immediate neighbours, especially the Poles and the Ottoman Turks, to a lesser extent the Swedes. Before the end of the century, however, wars at both ends of the continent converged, in particular at the time of the removal from the throne of James VII and II, who was suspected of attempting to install a Roman Catholic absolutism reminiscent of that of Louis XIV of France. Stuarts and Romanovs includes not only the kings and tsars but also includes their subjects pursuing both peaceful and warlike ends. There was a clear division of labour here. Nearly all the merchants from the British Isles were English, while most of the soldiers were Scots. Stuart diplomats were predominantly English, but there were outstanding Scots among them, too. As for the

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Romanovs, they were dependent on their advisers to varying extents. Even Peter I, the future Peter the Great, relied heavily in the earlier days of his ascendancy on such individuals as the Scot Patrick Gordon as well as other foreigners and Russians. A whole range of merchants, statesmen and soldiers is discussed in the book, as well as the kings and tsars. The emphasis of the book varies from chapter to chapter, depending on the balance between commerce, diplomacy and war. Chapters 1 and 8 constitute an introduction and conclusion. Chapters 2 to 7 are predominantly narrative. Chapter 1 introduces the subject with a comparison of the predecessors to the Stuarts and Romanovs, the Tudors and Riurikovichi. It looks at the relations developing from 1553 onwards, with some discussion of commerce, diplomacy and war. It then introduces the Stuarts and Romanovs before a description of the first meeting of Stuart and Russian representatives in 1600. Chapter 2 stretches from the accession of James VI of Scotland as James I of England in 1603 to his death in 1625. It takes in the accession of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov in 1613, which helped to bring to an end the Time of Troubles and led to the formal beginning of the relationship between the two dynasties. Chapter 3 considers a break in diplomatic contact between 1623 and 1646 during the turbulent reign of Charles I. It includes the accession of Aleksei Mikhailovich as well as bringing in the origins of the Civil War in England, Scotland and Ireland and aspects of the Thirty Years’ War. Chapter 4 describes serious social disturbances facing Aleksei Mikhailovich, and introduces the problem of a mid-century crisis with the execution of Charles I as an event of key significance. It continues with a description of relations during the years of the Interregnum up to the first years of the Restoration. Chapter 5 continues the story of the Restoration of Charles II and the resumption of official Stuart–Romanov relations up to the death of Aleksei Mikhailovich in 1676, with a more detailed description of some of the embassies. Chapter 6 contains similar description as it proceeds through the reign of Alexei’s son Fedor and the Regency of his daughter Sophia to the eve of the assumption of power by another son, the future Peter the Great, in 1689. Just before that, 1688 saw the removal from the throne of the male Stuarts in the person of James VII and II soon after his accession in 1685. Chapter 7 focuses on the end of the paternalistic Stuarts with special reference to the birth of Jacobitism in Russia, and on the consolidation of the Romanovs. Chapter 8 begins with the meeting of the future Peter the Great with William III in Utrecht at the beginning of the ‘Great Embassy’ of 1697–8. Observations follow on war and diplomacy, then commerce, in the seventeenth century and some reference to the historiographical problems encountered in the approach to the subject of Stuarts and Romanovs, including the failure of the Stuarts to establish an absolutist

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government while the Romanovs succeeded. The book ends with a brief epilogue on the last meeting of representatives of the two dynasties. We have approached our joint project like the fictional contemporaries of its subject, the Three Musketeers: ‘All for one: one for all.’ Certainly, none of us could have produced this work by himself. In the first instance, Jarmo Kotilaine was responsible for commerce, Graeme P. Herd for diplomacy and Paul Dukes for war. Dukes assumed responsibility for overall editing, but the agreed final version includes further emendations by Herd and Kotilaine. A few words are necessary about weights, measures, money and dates. A pud or pood is 16.38 kilograms. A chetvert’ varied between 4 and 8 pud, tending towards 4 at the beginning of the seventeenth century and more normally 8 at the end. A chetvert’ was also a measurement of land, usually half a desiatina, that is to say half of 11,197.44 square metres. A versta or verst was 1.067 kilometres in length. A rouble, abbreviated as R, and reichsthaler, abbreviated as Rtl, were the most common monetary units apart from the pound sterling. Throughout the seventeenth century, the Julian calendar was observed in most of Protestant Europe, including Britain. In 1700, it was adopted in Russia, where the years had previously been counted from the alleged date of the Creation. Catholic Europe adhered to the Gregorian calendar, ten days in advance of the Julian in the seventeenth century. Illustrations are provided of people and places. While pictures may indeed be worth thousands of words, they must also be viewed with care. For example, portraits of tsars were usually made for Orthodox ceremonial purposes, drawings of cities normally conveyed little of their hustle, bustle and smell. The cover is taken from the Blaeu map of Russia in 1614. The three figures symbolise the diplomat, the soldier and the merchant. The Bibliography lists full titles for the wide, multilingual (Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Polish, Russian, Swedish as well as Latin) range of primary and secondary sources indicated in the Notes. We have drawn heavily on the work of scholars such as Sergei Konovalov and Anna Liubimenko (as variously spelled) from older generations, Maria Salomon Arel and Geraldine Phipps from newer. We owe a debt of gratitude to these and other scholars, and to Geraldine Phipps in addition for reading an earlier version of the whole work and making many useful suggestions. We acknowledge with sincere thanks the help and advice that we have received from many other colleagues. The late Professor Lindsey Hughes, two anonymous readers for Dundee University Press and John Tuckwell made a thorough appraisal of the penultimate version. John Tuckwell first accepted the work for Dundee University Press. Mairi Sutherland and other associates of Birlinn Ltd saw the book through to publication. Three former PhD students at Aberdeen

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University – Alexeia Grosjean, Steve Murdoch and David Worthington – rendered assistance on Sweden, Denmark and the Habsburg Empire respectively. David Worthington also made a useful reading. Jan Willem Veluwenkamp and others at Groningen University were most supportive. Ingrid Maijer of Uppsala corrected and supplemented our analysis of the vesti-kuranty ’newspapers’. Dmitry Fedosov of Moscow, who is translating and editing the Diary of Patrick Gordon, suggested some emendations. Mr John Reid Hebden (author and publisher of Sir John Hebdon Kt, 1612–1670: His history and family, 2003) gave advice on the career of his illustrious ancestor as well as helping us to locate Sir John’s Portrait. Without Jill Golden of the Library of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Christina Schori-Lang of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and Ray Scrivens of Cambridge University Library, we would never have completed the bibliography. Professor Daniel Waugh of the University of Washington has allowed us to make use of his photographic collection. Colleagues in Historic Collections, King’s College, Old Aberdeen, could not have been more assiduous in locating and copying illustrations. Owen Logan applied his expertise to technical aspects of the illustrations. Cathryn Dukes helped with the proofs. Linda Sutherland produced the index. There are many others, too numerous to name, who have answered importunate questions, and made constructive suggestions. Of course, we ourselves take full responsibility for the book, errors, inadequacies and all. We dedicate the book to the memory of our dear friend Lindsey Hughes.

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Abbreviations APC Acts of the Privy Council ARA Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague AUL Aberdeen University Library BL British Library CASS Canadian-American Slavic Studies CSP CO D F V Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, Domestic, Foreign, Venetian EAA Eesti Ajalooarhiv EEBO Early English Books Online EHR English Historical Review GAA NA Gemeeente Archief Amsterdam, Notariële Archieven GHL Guildhall Library GKEL Goldsmith’-Kress Library of Economic Literature HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission HU BBL Harvard University Baker Business Library JHC Journal of the House of Commons NA Notariële Archieven OSP Oxford Slavonic Papers PC Privy Council PRO SPD SPF Public Record Office, State Papers Domestic, State Papers Foreign RA Riksarkivet, Stockholm RSL Royal Society Library RGADA Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Drevnikh Aktov RGVIA Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Voenno-Istoricheski Arkhiv SEER Slavonic and East European Review TKMG Tamozhennye knigi moskovskogo gosudarstva TRHS Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

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